Ethereal
by magnipisika16
Summary: One failed trial should've been enough... He was foolish to think otherwise... SEQUEL TO BERCEUS


**I am back ^_^ (how many times must I stop saying that .) Anyway... So a little something about this story. **

**This is really a sequel to Berceus (coz I got too obsessed with it :3) So, yeah, I should suggest that you guys read that first before this one coz you might not understand it :)  
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**Here is the link: **

**Okay! Now that THAT'S out of our system, please enjoy, "Ethereal"**

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**"Indirect" Prompt:  
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**Lover Dearest by Marianas Trench**

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There was still so much pain in his eyes.

He was a master of self-delusion—he even got himself deceived—but he can never fool her. She's been through so much with him that he can never erase that sense from her.

It was her sole possession that kept him within her grasp, even after all that has been said and done.

She had captured him. He was restricted.

There was no escape.

Still, she anticipated for the pain to penetrate through her entire being. It was what he had desired all along, right? She could feel it in the way her mere presence can trigger so much longing and craving to emerge from his cold facade of indifference.

He wanted her. She knew he wanted her.

Why else would he risk his own pride for someone he had loathed since thought had dawned on her?

It was so easy for him to just grab her and make her his, like how he had always planned. She saw it in those eyes.

Just one swift movement—just one measly step—and she'd fall finally to her long-awaited demise, and he to his delightful conception.

_You weren't even able to save him, Fi..._

Futility makes it undesirable, however. Useless, even.

What's the use of all that has been sacrificed when the considered necessary finale would not subsist? What are those mind-bending efforts if they will not even contribute to the grand scheme of things?

_Go home, Fionna..._

And to come back to the beginning seems to appear now as a tedious but essential solution for progress. But to start all over again? To fall all over again? To be left all over again?

When had a single path appear so complicated to her venturing prowess? Where had her confidence for drifting gone to? Where was the itinerant her?

Perhaps, died along with her heart? She was never sure...

All she knows now is that this was what as good as it gets. It was all that she could endure without blacking out.

_This was it..._

For once in the Adventuress' long life, dying had never felt like a great option.

_Move along, now, My Queen... _

But the pain never came forth. She momentarily wondered if that was the real feeling of death, but he could still make her feel him—his breath on her neck; his frost on her human warmth. Of course, she still waited...

...and waited...

...and waited some more...

But, the feelings never came.

Confusion strikes. And then hatred. Now, she wanted nothing more but to jump in the way of his deathly path. But all the more did he refuse.

_You're not afraid to die... That's why I don't want to kill you. Just yet..._

Not afraid to leave this world? Why must she? There was only so much this world can offer that could stop her.

Eternity? She denies.

Immortality? She refuses.

Life after death...?

She thought it was the barrier she had longed for—_he _certainly thought it would work—but even if the person who took her heart with him in the afterlife had now come back, it still wasn't enough. Especially now that it was _she _who is to endure the price in place of him.

_...And if Bubba comes back? Will the fear of death be instilled back into those eyes of ocean blue? _

How far could someone go to attain something that has once been eradicated and considered "past"? So far that you'd assent to the Undertaker's compromise of taking your very own existence _just _for the cause of repossessing what has long been gone? A god-like existence for a mortal's life? A lowly kingdom for the price of a whole world's own collapse?

_Bubba will never come back... Not even _you _can retrieve him..._

_If you believe that, then you must not know my capabilities too well..._

He never thinks things through. To think that someone with a thousand year's worth of experience will have _that _kind of flaw?

One failed trial should've been enough... He was foolish to think otherwise...

_Marshall!_

So, so foolish...

"_Marshall"...? Who may that be, my Queen?_

_Marshall! He's..._

Was she obliged to thank him?

_He..._

Or was his sole purpose was for her to loathe him—and life itself—even more...?

_...I-I don't know... I-I can't remember..._

_Hm? My Glob, Fionna. You've been acting quite peculiar since I've returned... Are you still, by any chance, in shock?_

_Y-Yeah... Most probably, that's it. I-I'm... still in shock..._

His face was still cold to her fingers.

By now, she should have just forgotten about him, like how he had wished for, though his reasons still left hidden within the depths of that figurative heart he denies to own. But, Fionna had been through much to say with much confidence that _all _magic does not take full effect in the Land of Aaa. She had the scars in her heart to prove it.

Therefore, even if in fragments, she still remembers him. And she loathes that memory even if it was all that she has left of him. She does not recall anymore of what he had been, and what he has become, but she could still summon up words...

...Words, that up until now, she still curses to not have been able to understand earlier.

_Come back when you're afraid to die again..._

That day never came. She doubts it will ever come to that point that she would enjoy life so much that the thought of losing it all emanates fear from her heart.

But still, she returned. She might as well.

It was the least she could do for him.

"You're stupid, you know that?" she mumbled. "You actually barter your own soul for someone whom you claimed you will loathe 'til eternity... How crazy can you get?"

She smiled a bitter smile as she leaned forward and let her lips touch his cold ones.

"When did you learn to stoop yourself down to _my _level?"

She tried to look into his once deep, dark eyes that are now nothing but mere frozen orbs, destined to stare into the ethereal realm he once called his repugnant home.

Fionna sighed.

There was still so much pain in those eyes.

-**FIN-**

**Well, I'm hoping you got it ^_^ If it's too vague, then please tell me :3 But just so you know, since I doubt I explained this too efficiently...  
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**Marshall was really turned to stone here, BECAUSE he exchanged his existence for the sake of Gumball's soul. Yeah :3 Got the idea from that Mars thingy episode form the series.  
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**So, yeah :D**

**Still a thousand thank you's for JustSittin'OnCityRooftops for her help :D  
**

**And thank YOU for reading :) Hope you liked it ^o^**

**Please review!**

**LoveLots~**


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